"They undertake to 'litigate by day and copulate by night'": Senior Circuit Judge James C. Hill's opinion, dissenting from the Eleventh Circuit's resolution of an insurance coverage issue in a case involving live-in lovers, is somewhat amusing. You can access the complete ruling at this link.Posted at 06:55 PM by Howard Bashman

The trial court, in rejecting the defamation claim, had ruled that imputing homosexuality can no longer be considered defamatory per se in Massachusetts. The First Circuit affirmed on other grounds and thus found it unnecessary to decide the correctness of that ruling.Posted at 05:33 PM by Howard Bashman

The summary begins, "The Supreme Court today unanimously ordered school funding for the coming school year to be increased no later than July 1 from approximately $142 million appropriated by the 2005 Legislature to $285 million above the past school year's level of funding."Posted at 04:10 PM by Howard Bashman

This case involves a facial challenge under the Fourteenth Amendment to a Virginia statute that attempts to criminalize "partial birth abortion," which the statute terms "partial birth infanticide." In a summary judgment order the district court declared the statute invalid for several reasons. We affirm because it lacks an exception to protect a woman's health.

The majority's opinion is a bold, new law that, in essence, constitutionalizes infanticide of a most gruesome nature. The plaintiff Dr. William Fitzhugh, an abortionist, sought, through this lawsuit, to protect his ability to perform abortions by crushing infants’ skulls or dismembering their limbs when they are inches away from being fully delivered alive without injury to the infant or to the mother. In his words, "My job on any given patient is to terminate that pregnancy, which means that I don't want a live birth." By expanding abortion rights to this extent, the majority unnecessarily distances our jurisprudence from that of the Supreme Court and from general norms of morality. I profoundly dissent from today's decision.

You can access the dissent directly at this link (starting on page 18 of the PDF file).

Last October, I linked here to press coverage of the Fourth Circuit's oral argument in this appeal.Posted at 03:40 PM by Howard Bashman

"School finance ruling coming today": The Associated Press reports here that "The Kansas Supreme Court today plans to release its much-anticipated ruling on the legality of the state's school finance formula."

"Man ordered to pay for healing ritual": Reuters reports here that "A California man who injured three Hmong men in a fight must pay their medical bills including more than $6,000 for animals and herbal medicines used in traditional healing ceremonies, a court has ruled."

"Cooper: Live-in lawsuit baseless; Woman: Sheriff pressed her to wed." The Associated Press reports here that "A lawsuit aimed at overturning North Carolina's 200-year-old law against unmarried couples living together is baseless and should be dismissed, says a motion filed by Attorney General Roy Cooper."Posted at 05:05 PM by Howard Bashman

Thursday, June 2, 2005

"White House counsel's ouster sought; Former Lawrence attorney now under fire for stance on gay discrimination":This article appears today in The Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World.

"'Justice has prevailed'; It's the end of one of Lancaster County's most infamous murder cases; More than 13 years after the brutal slaying of Laurie Show, the U.S. Supreme Court rejects Lisa Michelle Lambert's final appeal":This article appeared yesterday in The Lancaster (Pa.) New Era.Posted at 04:02 PM by Howard Bashman

"Brown Model Jurist for Filibuster Fight": David Kravets of The Associated Press has a report that begins, "Janice Rogers Brown, a sharecropper's daughter who became the first black woman and most conservative justice on California's Supreme Court, is a model jurist for U.S. Senate Republicans fighting judicial filibusters."Posted at 03:55 PM by Howard Bashman